CBI says CD linked to nun’s death tampered

Kochi, Sep 1 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Monday told the Kerala High Court that the Bangalore-based Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) had tampered with a CD linked to the mysterious death of a nun in the state.The CBI informed the court that the CFSL had played foul while dealing with the CD on the narco-analysis test done on two Christian priests and a nun to unravel the mystery of Sister Abhaya’s death.

The narco-analysis test was done last year at CFSL.

Last week, Justice V. Ramkumar blasted the CBI saying the agency’s statement regarding the number of CDs on the narco-analysis test was wrong. CBI official R.K. Aggarwal had stated that there was just one CD.

The judge had said there were three CDs and that certain vital information was missing in the single CD the CBI gave the court.

In an affidavit Monday, the CBI asked the court to take action against S. Malini of the CFSL, saying it was she who handled the CD and suggested that its “manipulation” could have only taken place with her knowledge. The CBI said it had not tampered with the CD.

Sister Abhaya, a resident of Pious X Hostel near here, was found dead in the well of the convent March 27, 1992.

The CBI concluded in November 1996 that the death was a homicide but the murderer remained untraced. The Kerala police had earlier dismissed the case as suicide. Three previous CBI teams have failed to crack the mystery behind Abhaya’s death.

The CBI has been saying that evidence in the case had been destroyed during earlier investigations by the state police.

The case ignited public interest again in April last year after a newspaper reported that Abhaya’s medical reports were tampered with at the Chemical Examiners Laboratory in Thiruvananthapuram.